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Description
Walpurgis is a European spring festival on 30 of April or 1 May.
It's mainly celebrated in...
Sweden=Valborg
Finland=Vappu
Germany and Netherlands=Walpurgisnacht
Estonia=Volbriöö
Lithuania=Valpurgijosnaktis
Latvia=Valpurgu
and The Czech Republic=Valpurzinia or Carodejnice

The festival can be traced to pre-Christian time when people celebrated that the winter was over and summer was on its way.
But later it became the day of the English missionary Saint Walpurga (710,779).
But unlike others the swedes kept on celebrating the spring and the light instead of her.

Walpurgis is celebrated by lighting large bonfires, dancing, singing, shoot fireworks, blow horns, make a lot of noise and of course drinking large amounts of alcohol.

The most popular swedish Walpurgis song is this one [link]

In the old days people believed that the line between the living and the dead was thinest on this night.
Ghosts, trolls and witches was said to be very active during this time and the fire, shouting and noisemaking was meant to keep them on distance.

Apart from the traditions I just mentioned there are others around the world.

In Dala-Floda in Sweden it's a tradition to put on creepy costumes.
Again the point of this was to scare away the trolls by simply being uglier than them.
These dressed up people are in swedish called VALBORRAR.

Here you can watch Valborrar from a swedish news program
[link]

In the Czech-Republic where its called Paleni Carodejnic (Burning the witches) or Carodejnice (The witches) they burn rag and straw witches or just broomsticks.

In Estonia they dress up as witches and wander the streets in a carnival like mood.

In the Middle-East there is a similar spring festival where they make fires and then jump over and it's called Nouroz.

Disney's Night on Bald Mountain scene from Fantasia (1940) is intended to portray Walpurgis
[link]

Well I hoped you liked my lesson in history and culture and I'm now gonna end this by sharing some awesome progressive rock about Walpurgis, enjoy.

[link]

[link]

Glad Valborg/Happy Walpurgis and be on lookout for trolls, witches and ghosts...OH MY!

Description
Walpurgis is a European spring festival on 30 of April or 1 May.
It's mainly celebrated in...
Sweden=Valborg
Finland=Vappu
Germany and Netherlands=Walpurgisnacht
Estonia=Volbriöö
Lithuania=Valpurgijosnaktis
Latvia=Valpurgu
and The Czech Republic=Valpurzinia or Carodejnice

The festival can be traced to pre-Christian time when people celebrated that the winter was over and summer was on its way.
But later it became the day of the English missionary Saint Walpurga (710,779).
But unlike others the swedes kept on celebrating the spring and the light instead of her.

Walpurgis is celebrated by lighting large bonfires, dancing, singing, shoot fireworks, blow horns, make a lot of noise and of course drinking large amounts of alcohol.

The most popular swedish Walpurgis song is this one [link]

In the old days people believed that the line between the living and the dead was thinest on this night.
Ghosts, trolls and witches was said to be very active during this time and the fire, shouting and noisemaking was meant to keep them on distance.

Apart from the traditions I just mentioned there are others around the world.

In Dala-Floda in Sweden it's a tradition to put on creepy costumes.
Again the point of this was to scare away the trolls by simply being uglier than them.
These dressed up people are in swedish called VALBORRAR.

Here you can watch Valborrar from a swedish news program
[link]

In the Czech-Republic where its called Paleni Carodejnic (Burning the witches) or Carodejnice (The witches) they burn rag and straw witches or just broomsticks.

In Estonia they dress up as witches and wander the streets in a carnival like mood.

In the Middle-East there is a similar spring festival where they make fires and then jump over and it's called Nouroz.

Disney's Night on Bald Mountain scene from Fantasia (1940) is intended to portray Walpurgis
[link]

Well I hoped you liked my lesson in history and culture and I'm now gonna end this by sharing some awesome progressive rock about Walpurgis, enjoy.

[link]

[link]

Glad Valborg/Happy Walpurgis and be on lookout for trolls, witches and ghosts...OH MY!